Brethren Moons
The Brethren Moons (Or Brother Moons and Blood Moons) are gigantic, space-faring Necromorphs which are discovered to be the source of the Marker signals. They are believed to be the final life cycle stage of the Necromorphs. Due to their agenda, the Brethren Moons are the central antagonists of the Dead Space franchise. History Source and Convergence The Brethren Moons, though their origins are unknown, are a series of moon-sized creatures throughout the galaxy that consumed all organic life they encounter through the use of their Markers. The Moons consumed new worlds by sending out Black Markers which travelled through space and impact upon planets. In the case of Earth, the Black Marker was carried inside an asteroid that struck the Yucatán Peninsula around 65 million years B.C. It was unknown if the Moons specifically targeted worlds that showed promise for intelligent life, or if, as it was theorized by the Unitologist leader, Jacob Danik, the Markers are actually responsible for encouraging the evolution of intelligent species. The Markers broadcasted an electromagnetic signal originating from the Moons that mentally affected intelligent beings. This signal manifested either as dementia or as a compulsion to replicate Markers through artificial means. This along with the fact that the Marker signal represented a source of apparently limitless electromagnetic energy drove intelligent species to create Marker copies—Red Markers—that are inevitably distributed throughout their territory. However, the signal had another function: It could alter necrotic tissue on the molecular level, causing corpses to reanimate and become Necromorphs. After a Necromorph infestation claimed the majority of a planet's population, the Markers on the planet would initiate a Convergence Event—the birth of a Brethren Moon. Once the Convergence began, the flesh of the Necromorphs and other dead tissue within the Marker's area of influence are flung into the stratosphere where they began to form into a new Moon. The Moon not only absorbed biorganic material, but also planetary fragments as well.Dead Space 3: Chapter 14: Everything Has Its Place[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi8xb67ljiI YouTube: The answer to Convergence?] The creature was only finalized once the creators of the Markers are absorbed along with the planet's entire biosphere. Once the Markers are absorbed as well as a large portion of the biosphere, the Marker itself gravitates to the central heart of the Moon so it could communicate telepathically with the rest of the network as well as release broadcasts to other nearby Markers. It was currently unknown what happened to the Moon once it absorbed all life at its birthplace, but it was believed that they mass travelled to the nearest source of organic life to continue feeding. Earl Serrano speculated that all life between the origin of the Moons and humanity's home system are extinguished by the Moons which mixed countless species in their uniform biomass. The game proposed an uncommon answer to the Fermi paradox: Humanity never had the opportunity to contact aliens because a massively and lethally invasive species absorbed most if not all organic tissue within our galaxy, possibly beyond, leaving much of it in a state of "dead space".Dead Space 3: Chapter 18: Kill or Be Killed Serrano also discovered that the Moons formed a network spanning the entire galaxy which they used to communicate as the Markers' influence affected races to build more of them, trapping and assimilating other species, the network continued to expand.Dead Space 3: Chapter 16: What Lies Below Events of Dead Space 3 During the events of Dead Space 3, Isaac Clarke came to realize that the Markers are receiving a distress call from the incomplete Moon of Tau Volantis whose Convergence was interrupted when the aliens that it attempted to assimilate built a machine to flash-freeze their entire planet. In response, the Moon began using the other Markers to broadcast distress signals (Such as Make us Whole or Turn it Off) in the hopes of luring new organic beings to disable the Machine so it could complete its growth and continue assimilating parts of the galaxy into new Moons. The faux Markers that Isaac faced attempted to continue the "Brethren Chain" of Moons by circumventing the problem of the hibernating Tau Volantis Moon. He realized too that if the Moon was freed, any location within the galaxy with a still active Marker would begin the ultimate Convergence, continuing its growth. Should the Moon complete itself, it would waken the other Brethren Moons. These, heading for the Marker locations would devour all organic life present, resulting in the destruction of all humanity and possibly all life in the galaxy. In the final chapter, Isaac managed to reconfigure the Alien Machine, destroying the Tau Volantis Moon and causing all Markers to seemingly stop broadcasting, ending the danger to the galaxy at least temporarily. However, though the Tau Volantis Moon was incomplete, upon its awakening, it somehow managed to contact the other Brethren Moons. Upon its destruction, they awoke and began converging on Earth, the last source of human life in the galaxy. Events of Dead Space 3: Awakened Following the destruction of the Tau Volantis Moon and their subsequent fall onto the planet below, Isaac Clarke and John Carver reawoke in a frozen crevice. Upon reaching the surface, the two men noticed the fallen Moon out on the horizon of Tau Volantis. Isaac believed that after the Moon's destruction, the Marker signal would cease and there would not be any more Necromorphs. When Isaac and Carver reached the nearest Suit Kiosk and Bench, however, they suffered from a brief vision from the Brethren Moons, realizing that the Necromorphs are still active. The remaining Unitologist soldiers on Tau Volantis started to lose faith when the Moon was destroyed, believing that there would be no Convergence or Rebirth, only death. However, a Unitologist fanatic heard a "voice" from the awakened Brethren Moons, saying: "We are coming, we are hungry." His faith in Unitology reaffirmed, the Circle member began to gather all of the remaining Unitologists into orbit into his new, fanatical cult of mutilation and sacrifice. Only a few Unitologists resisted, either mentally broken by the Moon's signal (Chanting the mantra "They are hungry, they are coming") or outright attempting to resist and escape their insane, former brethren. Isaac and Carver reached the Terra Nova and are subjected to the painful visions of the Brethren Moons. Isaac, suspecting that they are being manipulated into taking the ship back to Earth so the Moons could follow them there decided to destroy the ShockPoint Drive and trap them at Tau Volantis forever. Carver, determined to recover the drive and return and seeing Isaac's paranoia growing threatened him. The pair fought the Cult Leader after a tense hallucinatory confrontation, discovering, upon his defeat, that the Moons knew where Earth was and turned Carver and Isaac against each other to prevent them from warning Earth in time. Knowing that they had little time, Isaac and Carver installed the salvaged ShockPoint Drive on the Terra Nova and overloaded the ancient reactor of the ship to power it up, shocking out just before the ship broke down entirely. Arriving at Earth, Isaac and Carver tried to contact the authorities (EarthGov and CEC) through several channels to relay their warning. Each time was met with static. After several tries, a transmission broke through: The gurgles and snarls of many Necromorphs. The two heroes are shocked to see the Brethren Moons rising from the other side of Earth, already scouring the surface of the planet with their tentacles. A Brethren Moon began to rise in front of the '' Terra Nova'' and the scene ended, leaving their fate unclear. Appearance and Behavior The Brethren Moons are colossal Necromorphs, far larger than any other form previously encountered. The surface acted as a protective casing, concealing a writhing mass of tentacles that could reach thousands of miles in length. Within the midst of the tentacles lied a circular maw, capable of ingesting massive quantities of matter. Hanging at the entrance of the mouth was an irregular mass of tissue consisting of multiple eyes, tentacles, a fang-lined slit and a circular sucking mouth. This "head" was capable of interacting with smaller objects about to be ingested, breaking down raw materials and engaging any stubborn living prey. It also had another, far, far larger "head" which was located at approximately the front and center of the organic portions of the Moon. This head had two colossal yellow eyes and two long, pointy protrusions on either side that resembled the lateral horns of a rhinoceros beetle. Research notes from Dr. Serrano speculated that the Moons are drawn to species that grew and spread throughout the galaxy and became overpopulated and starved of resources. He speculated that this was how they discovered the Alien race of Tau Volantis who once were an empire trillions strong. However, the aliens are resourceful and froze the entire planet with the Machine at the cost of their own lives. This theory was backed up by the limitless energy that the Markers radiated, encouraging species with a desperate need for resources and energy to focus on building more Markers across their systems. This would make the species less able to enact quarantines effectively. The Moons are sentient organisms, able to communicate via a form of telepathic signal as it was with Isaac and Carver. They are also capable of causing hallucinations using their telepathic abilities. During the hallucinations where they spoke to Isaac and Carver through their "Prophet", The Cult Leader, they displayed a kind of Hive Mind mentality, referring to themselves in the plural. The Moons appeared to regard themselves as invincible, omnipotent and divine, at one point referring to themselves collectively as a "god". The Brethren Moons also seemed to speak rather politely and calmly which was a strong contrast to their general nature. They seemed to lack any empathy as they did not appear to be saddened or angered by the death of their own kind, but showed frustration and anger toward Isaac after he defeated their Prophet. Trivia *Like in Dead Space, Dead Space (Mobile), and Dead Space: Extraction, the first letters of each chapter of Dead Space 3 spell a phrase. This such phrase in Dead Space 3 is "BROTHER MOONS ARE AWAKE," which suggests that the chain of the Brethren Moons are awake despite the destruction of Tau Volantis' Moon, as confirmed in Awakened. *The Hive Mind and the Nexus are thought to be the conduits for the Necromorphs, channeling the Marker's signal through them, acting as ground commanders. However, the larger, more powerful Necromorphs are commanded by the Brethren Moon stationed above Tau Volantis. *The Brethren Moons are the largest Necromorphs in the Dead Space ''series thus far. *There are 11 known existing Brethren Moons, including the Tau Volantis Moon. * The Moons are a clear reference to Lovecraftian Horror: a monstrous, intelligent, devouring godlike entity that seemingly could not be stopped by the protagonist alone. ** They especially show striking similarities to Yog-Sothoth, an Outer God in the Cthulhu mythos, that appears as 7 glowing spheres, and as a mass of writhing tentacles. *Hints at the Moon network's existence featured prominently in ''Dead Space 2, e''specially in architecture and artwork found in the Church of Unitology on Titan Station, and in certain audio logs toward the end of the game. Some dialogue, such as Nicole saying "I am growing cold Isaac. It hurts," could be foreshadowing of the Tau Volantis Moon having been frozen by the Alien Machine, taunting Isaac through the Site 12 Marker's signal. **In the first ''Dead Space, as Isaac's dementia starts to worsen, one of the dementia-induced voices that can be heard says "Ice held us," possibly as hinting at the existence of the Tau Volantis moon. *The Brethren Moons share similarities with Atropus of the D&D franchise, as well as the Reapers of the Mass Effect franchise and the Graveminds of the Halo franchise. * In Chapter 10 of Dead Space, on the Ishimura's Crew Deck, there was a poster for a movie titled "Rancid Moon," which showed a James Bond-like protagonist being chased by a group of shadowy, tool-armed figures across the surface of the moon. This may or may not foreshadow the Brother Moon's appearance. Gallery File:Dead Space3-end.jpg|The face of the Brother Moon of Tau Volantis MoonDestroyed.png|The Moon's destruction (Co-op) brethren moons.png|Isaac and Carver discover the Brethren Moons at Earth Dead space 3 - moon boss concept art.jpg|Depiction of a Brethren Moon 885084_599589766737755_1452673252_o.jpg|Moon Concept Moon crashed.png|Moon crashed on the surface 527810_599528233410575_166941692_n.jpg|A background painting concept of the crashed Moon before final render 894054_599589910071074_960988107_o.jpg|Moon defeated moon.jpg|Image flashed of a Moon in the Awakened trailer File:Tau_volantis_moon_crashed.png|The Moon crashed on the planet (as seen in the Awakened DLC trailer in reverse colors). DS3 Brother Moon 01.png|Tau Volantis Moon crashed on the planet Sources See Also *Tau Volantis Moon *Aliens *Tau Volantis *Convergence Event Video ru:Собратья Луны Category:Alien based forms Category:Massive necromorphs